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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a tiny open space within in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard footsteps drawing near through the lush forest.

He realized that he had been surrounded, and stood still.

“One was standing, pointing with an projectile,” he recalls. “And somehow he noticed I was here and I commenced to run.”

He found himself confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbor to these nomadic tribe, who reject engagement with outsiders.

A new report by a rights organisation states remain no fewer than 196 described as “isolated tribes” left in the world. The group is believed to be the most numerous. The report says 50% of these communities might be eliminated within ten years unless authorities neglect to implement more measures to safeguard them.

It argues the most significant dangers stem from deforestation, digging or drilling for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely vulnerable to common illness—as such, the report states a threat is presented by interaction with religious missionaries and digital content creators looking for clicks.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by residents.

The village is a fishing community of seven or eight families, sitting atop on the edges of the local river deep within the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the most accessible village by watercraft.

This region is not recognised as a protected reserve for isolated tribes, and timber firms operate here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be noticed day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their woodland disrupted and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants say they are torn. They dread the tribal weapons but they hold deep admiration for their “relatives” residing in the woodland and desire to defend them.

“Let them live as they live, we are unable to alter their way of life. That's why we preserve our space,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the tribe's survival, the danger of conflict and the possibility that timber workers might subject the Mashco Piro to diseases they have no immunity to.

At the time in the community, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia, a resident with a young girl, was in the forest picking fruit when she heard them.

“We heard calls, cries from individuals, numerous of them. Like there was a whole group shouting,” she shared with us.

This marked the initial occasion she had come across the group and she escaped. Subsequently, her mind was continually throbbing from terror.

“Because exist timber workers and companies destroying the woodland they're running away, perhaps out of fear and they end up close to us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. That's what frightens me.”

In 2022, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while catching fish. A single person was struck by an projectile to the gut. He survived, but the other person was found dead after several days with several puncture marks in his frame.

The Peruvian government has a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, making it prohibited to initiate encounters with them.

The strategy was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who saw that initial interaction with remote tribes lead to entire groups being eliminated by sickness, poverty and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their community perished within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely susceptible—epidemiologically, any interaction could transmit sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses might decimate them,” says Issrail Aquisse from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or intrusion can be very harmful to their way of life and well-being as a group.”

For those living nearby of {